T20 World Cup: Virat Kohli announced retirement from T20Is.©AFP
Virat Kohli, former captain of the Indian national cricket team and man of the match in the 2024 T20 World Cup final, announced his retirement from the format soon after India’s historic victory over South Africa in the title match in Barbados on Saturday . Kohli, who was one of India’s best cricketers, said it was time for the next generation to take over. For a boy who rose from the alleys of Delhi to rule world cricket, it was the perfect culmination of a T20I career that saw several ups and downs as captain.
“This was my last T20 World Cup, this is exactly what we wanted to achieve,” Kohli told broadcasters after India ended an 11-year ICC title drought.
“One day you feel like you can’t run and this happens, God is great. (It’s) just the occasion, now or never kind of situation. This was my last T20 game for India. We wanted to raise that trophy.”
“Yes, I do, that was an open secret (retirement). It’s not something I wouldn’t announce even if we lost. It’s time for the next generation to take the T20 game forward,” Kohli confirmed when asked by Harsha Bhogle if he was making the official announcement about calling it a day.
“It has been a long wait for us, waiting to win an ICC tournament. You look at someone like Rohit (Sharma), he has played 9 T20 World Cups and this is my sixth.
“He deserves it. It’s been difficult to contain things (emotions) and I think it will happen later. It’s an amazing day and I’m grateful,” Kohli added.
Virat Kohli is one of those rare cricketers who has won both ODI and T20 World Cup. Kohli played his first T20I in 2010 and later played in several T20 World Cups. But each time, India fell short until the 2024 edition where Kohli emerged as a savior after India’s dreadful start against South Africa. He scored 76 off 59 balls as India scored a record total of 176 /7 in the T20 World Cup final.
At the end of his glorious career, Virat Kohli finished with a total of 4,188 in 125 matches at an average of 48.69.
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